Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Review of Speechless by Hannah Harrington

October is National Bully Prevention Month which started in 2006 and grows by leaps and bounds each year. It should, bullying is something that begins when we're young and if not stamped out festers and grows to malignancy in adults.
Speechless YA author Hannah Harrington newest novel deals with just that and it's a fitting novel to celebrate our differences and stop bullying.
Enjoy the review, but live the lesson.

Chelsea Knot loved her life, loved gossiping, loved telling
secrets and enjoyed her status as second string to her best bud Kristen which
made her the second most popular girl in the sophomore class at Grand Lake
High, but most of all she loved spilling secrets and watching the results.
Until the secret she spilled at a New Year’s Eve party changed her life, the
lives of those around her and almost cost a life. As a result of a decision she
makes and acts on she goes from popular to pariah, her friends abandon and
wrong her and she takes a vow of silence since it seems when she opens her
mouth people get hurt. She also looks in a new social direction that would have
seemed as alien as the Martian landscape to the old Chelsea but seems to fit
the new one. The lessons life are teaching her are not painless, seeking
redemption does not always get the result you wish for and asking for forgiveness
sometimes starts by asking it of yourself.

This is the perfect choice to start Bully Prevention Month
and Hannah’s storytelling made this lesson easy to read even if the actions of
a few were shameful. Her storyline of learning social conscience is expertly
told and enriched this very adult palate as well as it would a much younger
one. Her characters are realistically likeable and disgraceful where
appropriate and her protagonist Chelsea could be any girl/boy USA and in fact
in one way or anther probably mirrors each of us at one time in our life or
another. The message is clear, get along, know, live and teach tolerance. There
is a quote from the book that really said it all page 245 “Hate is…it’s too easy,” he says. His face is
calm, calmer than it has any right to be, his eyes not wavering from mine, like
he’s so completely sure of what he’s saying. “Love. Love takes courage.”

The right thing is not always the easier path but it’s
always the right one.
Thank you for this beautiful voice against violence and hate, I can’t wait to
see where you take us next.

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